Signs of the Times - April 2013 - (Page 12)

TECHNOLOGY UPDATE Darek Johnson is ST’s Senior Technology Editor/Analyst. Email him at darek.johnson@stmediagroup.com By Darek Johnson Google and Rabbit’s-Foot Juju A company that invests in self-driving cars can’t be all bad. A London PR firm story that named Bunnyfoot released a said Google might be misleading web searchers. Most journalists won’t question the Google accusation – the real query is why would anyone name their PR firm Bunnyfoot? Rabbit’s-foot juju? Back in the day, some thought carrying a brassbound rabbit foot on their key chain attracted good luck. I imagine PETA blocked the practice because it wasn’t so lucky for the rabbits. Bunnyfoot’s director, Rob Stevens, said his firm implemented eyetracking research for a client, and the results were a surprise. It learned that Google has bolstered its own luck by deceptively placing its Google Adwords as page-top listings. Adwords are paid ads – not the search engine’s crown listings. Stevens’ test reported 41% of search users clicked on the topside ads, but thought they were clicking on Google’s most-popular, mostsearched and most authoritative websites. leave ever-growing trails of personal information. The civil-liberties staff said “…we entrust our conversations, emails, photos, location information and much more to companies like Facebook, Google and Yahoo.” The ACLU questioned what those companies do with the information. Certainly, an ethics question exists, but the question regards techcorporation behavior and extends far beyond one company. The topside Adwords appear similar to Google’s regular listings; however, they display a light-colored background that’s unlike Google’s conventional, web-crawler references. Therefore, even if Google planned the deception, it’s probably allowable – at least by today’s banking standards. Is Google a bad guy? Last month, I quoted the ACLU saying the world’s online activities Cut your ink costs: Effective color management, proper profiles and less light ink makes a difference Dean Derhak is the product director at SAi (Salt Lake City). As part of his job, Dean visits signshops and large-format print businesses to learn what processes they’ve employed to increase their profits. He often asks about the shop’s ink costs per square foot on each printer. Dean said two out of three shops admit they don’t know. He also asks about ink waste and, again, few shops are aware of ink costs they’re losing. He said some confess they would rather not know, lest they discover the inconvenient truth. Here, in a series of monthly articles, Dean will share print-cost saving ideas with ST readers. He’ll explain how costing effective color management and media profiling can help signshops and large-format print providers reduce ink costs and also keep customers coming back. 12 SIGNS OF THE TIMES / APRIL 2013 / www.signweb.com Who is Google? Google owns between 77 and 122 companies, in addition to its mainline search products. The ownership inventory depends upon your source list and, because the massive firm buys, sells and invests without telephoning ST, our information may not be accurate. In part, Google’s ownership list includes (or has included) Aardvark, AdMob, Android, Angstro, Apture, BufferBox, Channel Intelligence, ebook Technologies, Frommers, Gizmo5, ImageAmerica, Jaiku, Kantango, Motorola Mobility, Orion, To cut for your media. you must obtain the right ICC your ink costs, profiles Surprisingly, numerous wideformat print providers mistakenly use one generic profile on all media and, when they encounter an ink problem, they use color correction to adjust the image. The need to manually color correct each job before you print suggests incorrect ICC profiles. Such action wastes a tremendous amount of ink, and also makes spot-color matching more difficult. For the best operation, have ICC profiles for each printer and media, and select the correct profile each time you change media on the printer. Otherwise, you’re wasting ink (and unnecessarily escalating your ink costs) without realizing it. Acquiring ICC profiles is easy – typically, they’re available from your RIP provider, printer manufacturer and media suppliers. For complete control, I recommend building your own ICC profiles. Over time, the investment will pay http://www.signweb.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Signs of the Times - April 2013

Signs of the Times - April 2013
Contents
ST Update
Cut Your Ink Costs
Technology Update
Vinyl Apps
Strictly Electric
LED Update
Software Update
Technology Review
Technology Review
Sign Museum News
New Products
The 2013 International Sign Contest
Leasing Equipment
The ISA Sign Expo 2013 Preview
Industry News
Advertising Index
Editorially Speaking

Signs of the Times - April 2013